The Potsdam Declaration is signed in Potsdam, Germany.

The **Potsdam Declaration**, issued on **26 July 1945**, was a statement by the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and China that called upon Japan to surrender unconditionally and bring an end to the Second World War in the Pacific. The declaration was drafted during the Potsdam Conference held near Berlin, where U.S. President Harry S. Truman, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (later replaced by Clement Attlee after the British election), and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin discussed the postwar order. Although the Soviet Union did not initially sign the declaration because it was still officially neutral toward Japan, it agreed in secret to enter the war against Japan within weeks.

The declaration outlined the terms under which Japan could surrender. It demanded the complete disarmament of Japanese armed forces, the removal of militarist leaders from positions of power, and the occupation of Japan by Allied forces until these objectives had been achieved. At the same time, it emphasized that Japan would not be destroyed as a nation, promising that its people would be allowed to establish a peaceful government, rebuild their economy, and eventually regain sovereignty once democratic reforms had taken root. However, the declaration warned that if Japan rejected these terms, it would face “prompt and utter destruction.”

Japan initially declined to accept the declaration, hoping to secure more favorable surrender terms through Soviet mediation. Events quickly overtook those hopes. On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-held territories in Manchuria. Faced with these devastating developments, Emperor Hirohito decided to accept the Potsdam Declaration, provided the imperial institution could be preserved. Japan formally surrendered on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS *Missouri*, and the declaration became the foundation for the Allied occupation and the political, economic, and democratic reforms that transformed postwar Japan.